The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, #3)

"In each case, your loved ones have been used to lure you into Kronos's traps. Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, percy. You do not know when it is time to cut your losses. To save a friend, you would sacrifice the world. In a hero of the prophecy, that is very, very dangerous." 
I balled my fists. "That's not a flaw. Just because I want to help my friends-" 
"The most dangerous flaws are those which are good in moderation," she said. "Evil is easy to fight. Lack of wisdom . . . that is very hard indeed."

I swear, the further I get in this series, the more addicting it becomes.

In the third installment of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, The Titans Curse starts off with Thalia, Annabeth, and Thalia answering yet another call for help from Grover, who has put his search for Pan on hold while the satyrs go on high alert in search of half-bloods. It turns out that Grover has found two young half-bloods of unknown parentage, but they aren't the only ones who have discovered the di Angelo siblings. A monster attacks the school and the demigods and satyr are pitted against an enemy they're not sure they can handle.

When Annabeth is taken in the battle, Percy immediately volunteers to lead the quest in search of her. He's eager to help his best friend and terrified of losing her.

There are more things going on than just Annabeth's kidnapping, though. Other demigods have been disappearing and now Artemis is involved. She sends her hunters to Camp Half-Blood, causing an uproar among the campers, who have no love to spare for the girls. When Artemis too goes missing, all Hades breaks loose.

However, when the quest commissioned, Percy is overlooked in favor of Thalia, Grover, and three of Artemis's hunters. Percy isn't usually one to break the rules, but with Annabeth's life on the line, all bets are off. It might just be up to him to break out of camp and create a quest of his own.

I am consistently impressed with authors who can track the progression of the ages of their heroes and heroines in tales like this and keep them accurate. One of the many things I keep finding myself admiring about this book series is how I can see the growth and maturity of each character continue to progress as time goes by and these heroes/heroines experience more of what their danger-riddled life has to offer. However, that's certainly not the only thing I admire about Percy Jackson & the Olympians.

Once again, Rick Riordan has offered the reader a new look at the ancient Greek myths, presenting gods and goddesses as they might have become in our day and myths that translate into wonderful stories for our favorite demigods to navigate.

In The Titan's Curse, Riordan draws the reader into another action-packed adventure filled with rich mythology, angry gods, and new obstacles at every turn. He creates a stunning world that draws you in and holds you captive even after the final page has been turned.

Not many books can give me a reading hangover (where the reader has trouble starting a new book because he/she can't get the last one off the brain), because of how much I read, but these books certainly do. If that isn't reason enough as to why you should pick up this book, I don't know what is.

Rating: ★★★★★

"Percy, as much as I want you to come home"--she sighed like she was mad at herself--"as much as I want you to be safe, I want you to understand something. You need to do whatever you think you have to do." 
I stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, do you really, deep down, believe that you have to save her? Do you think it's the right thing to do? Because I know one thing about you, Percy. Your heart is always in the right place. Listen to it."